Nelson’s arts, culture and heritage sector plays a significant role in the social, cultural and  economic life of our community. In advance of the 2026 municipal election, we are inviting candidates to share their perspectives on the sector and their priorities should they be elected. The Arts, Culture & Heritage Candidate Survey is conducted by the Nelson & District Arts Council, Nelson Museum, Archives, and Gallery, Oxygen Art Centre, Kootenay Regional Arts Council, Tapatía Collective, and The Capitol Theatre.

The 2026 local election will be held Saturday, October 17, 2026. Eligible voters will elect one mayor and six councillors, as well as two School District 8 trustees.

Two advance voting opportunities will be held at City Hall, 2nd Floor, Council Chambers, on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 and Wednesday, October 14, 2026 from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. For more information, visit the City of Nelson website.

In this survey, we hear from Ainsleah Hastings, a Candidate for the office of Councillor.

1. Civic Experience

What experience do you have working in politics?

What is your knowledge in regards to municipal politics and responsibilities?

What vision of community would you bring to city council?

I first ran for Council in 2022 with lived experience and a desire to learn. Four years later, I bring experience in tenant advocacy, nonprofit governance, frontline community work, and direct involvement in local housing issues. I serve on Nelson’s Housing Committee and as Secretary of the Executive Committee on the Board of Nelson CARES Society.

I understand both the responsibilities and limitations of municipal government, and the importance of working across sectors and levels of government to get things done.

My vision is a Nelson where people of different ages, incomes, abilities and backgrounds can afford to live here and meaningfully participate in community life. Housing, food security, transit, climate resilience, public space, and arts and culture are all connected.

I see arts and culture as a big part of what makes life meaningful and part of community infrastructure. 606 Arts Space is a great example: the City retains an important public asset while helping provide stable, affordable space for the arts. I want Nelson to build on approaches like this and ensure arts, culture and heritage remain central to how we plan for our future.

2. Community Engagement & Transparency

How would you encourage residents, community organizations, and local non-profits to participate meaningfully in City visioning and decision-making?

How would you ensure transparency and accountability in your own decision-making?

Public engagement needs to happen in ways that actually work for people. Online surveys and meetings at City Hall are useful, but they’re not going to reach everyone. I’d like to see the City get out into the community more and work with local organizations, nonprofits, businesses and cultural groups to meet people where they already are.

That could mean paper surveys for seniors, pop-ups at community events, more online options, or directly reaching out to renters, youth, people with disabilities, lower-income residents and others whose voices might not always make it into City conversations.

As a councillor, I’ll do my homework. I’ll read the materials, ask questions, listen to different perspectives and make informed decisions. I’ll be honest about what the City can and can’t do, explain my decisions and my votes, and take responsibility for them.

Most importantly, I want to stay connected to people throughout the whole term, not just when I’m asking for their vote.

3. Understanding Nelson’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Sector

What is your impression of Nelson’s arts, culture, and heritage sector?

What role do you believe it plays in our community?

Nelson’s arts, culture and heritage sector isn’t an extra – it’s part of who we are. It’s one of the reasons people want to live here, visit here and stay here. It contributes enormously to our economy and downtown, but its value goes far beyond tourism or dollars.

I grew up in Nelson’s arts scene. As a teenager and young adult, I sang and performed at places like the Glacier Gourmet Café, the Velvet Underground, and the David Thompson Cultural Centre/Charlotte’s Open Stage. None of these spaces exist anymore. My first job was at the record store Zoom Discs on Baker Street, and I was thrilled beyond words when my first poem was published in the DIY local zine The Mercury. I dreamed of attending Kootenay School of the Arts for Creative Writing and later took writing classes with Verna Relkoff at the Nelson Fine Arts Centre when the funding for the KSA writing program was cut. I also co-hosted several shows on Kootenay Co-op Radio during its early years (Radio Free Nelson in 2001, and others). I think it’s incredible and a testament to how amazing our community is that we still have our own co-op radio station! I’m a singer, writer and artist, and these weird, creative, grassroots spaces helped shape who I am.

I don’t see arts and culture as a nice-to-have that we fund after the “important” things are taken care of. Arts and culture are one of the important things. They give people somewhere to belong, experiment, make weird things, tell stories, challenge ideas and build community.

And we can’t seriously talk about supporting the arts without talking about affordability. I said this when I ran in 2022 and believe it even more strongly now: artists need stability and space to create. If artists, musicians, writers and cultural workers can’t afford to live, rehearse, perform or make work here, we risk losing the very people who make Nelson the creative, interesting and weird place we love.

Keep Nelson Weird!

4. Understanding the Non-Profit Sector

Are you familiar with the operational realities and funding models of non-profit arts, culture, and heritage organizations?

What do you see as the primary challenges facing these organizations today?

Yes. My understanding has grown considerably since I answered this question in 2022.

I work in the nonprofit sector and serve on the Board and Executive Committee of Nelson CARES Society. I understand the reality of trying to deliver consistent community services while relying on combinations of grants, government funding, donations, fundraising, partnerships and limited operating budgets.

Arts and cultural nonprofits face many of the same pressures: rising wages and operating costs, expensive and limited space, aging infrastructure, grant dependence, staff capacity and burnout, and the difficulty of funding core operations when many funding streams favour individual projects.

In 2022, I identified public grants and sponsorships as major parts of arts nonprofit funding and said I wanted to deepen my understanding of those models. Four years of nonprofit work and governance have given me a much more practical understanding of what unstable or restricted funding means for an organization trying to plan beyond the next grant cycle.

5. Truth, Reconciliation & Indigenous Relationships

Arts, culture and heritage organizations have an important role to play in truth, reconciliation and decolonization. 

What learning have you undertaken with Indigenous peoples, histories, and communities connected to this territory?

Have you built relationships with the Indigenous community?

How do you see City Council leadership contributing meaningfully to this work?

I see reconciliation as ongoing: learning, unlearning, listening and nurturing relationships over time. It’s not something that can be reduced to a statement or treated as a box to check.

My own learning started when I was young and has continued through friendships, artistic collaborations, reading, community events, advocacy and, most importantly, listening to and lifting up Indigenous voices. In 2022, I wrote that “the work is never done,” and I still feel that way.

I also don’t want to overstate relationships I haven’t personally cultivated. Meaningful relationships take time, trust and reciprocity. I think the City can help by creating more opportunities for Indigenous communities, local government and the wider community to come together and work collaboratively.

Reconciliation should be part of how we think about land, housing, food systems, climate resilience, heritage, arts and culture, and community life. I want to keep learning and support genuine relationships and opportunities to work together with the Sinixt, Syilx and Ktunaxa peoples, as well as Métis and other Indigenous communities.

6. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility

What learning or experience have you had related to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility?

If elected, how would these principles influence your work as a City Councillor?

My work at the Nelson Community Food Centre brings me into regular contact with people from across our community, including many who face financial, housing and accessibility barriers. I have also worked in tenant advocacy and nonprofit governance, and these experiences have taught me that seemingly equal policies can affect people very differently.

To me, equity means asking: Who benefits? Who is affected? Who faces a barrier? Whose perspective are we missing?

Those questions would inform how I approach decisions at Council. I will seek out a wide range of perspectives, including those of renters, seniors, young people, working families, people living on low incomes, people with disabilities, artists, newcomers, local business owners and others who may face barriers to municipal participation.

My 2022 answer was much more personal and explicitly connected EDI with affordability and accessibility. I would retain that underlying principle today: a community cannot call itself inclusive if people cannot afford to live here, enter its public spaces, access its services or participate in community life.

7. Participation in Arts, Culture & Heritage

How often do you attend an arts and culture event in the community?

Do you or have you ever volunteered for an arts, culture, or heritage non-profit?

Do you purchase local artworks or support the sector in other ways?

I attend arts and cultural events regularly. Music, art, film, literature and performance have been central to my life for as long as I can remember.

As a teenager, I first sang solo onstage in a local production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Capitol Theatre. I later performed at Nelson open mics and spent years recording and performing with a band in Vancouver, including at the Vancouver Fringe Festival and Music Waste Fest.

I still participate in Nelson’s music community today. I sing in local psychobilly punk band The Dreggz. Although adult-life responsibilities currently have us on hiatus, we performed at a Noise Cult Productions Halloween event in 2024 at The Royal, and were invited to play Massif Music Festival in 2025.

I support local musicians, festivals, artists, and businesses whenever I can. To me, supporting artists also means creating the conditions that allow them to keep making art: affordable housing, accessible venues, rehearsal and studio space, opportunities to be paid fairly for their work, and a community where creative people can afford to live.

List 8 cultural organizations and businesses that deliver community-based arts.

• 606 Arts Space
• Nearside Arts Society
• Oxygen Art Centre
• NMAG
• Capitol Theatre
• Nelson Civic Theatre Society
• Slava Doval’s Dance Fusion
• Nelson & District Arts Council
• Elephant Mountain Literary Festival
• The Royal.

Oops that’s ten.

8. The Future of Arts, Culture & Heritage in Nelson

What do you believe are the most important contributions arts, culture, and heritage make to Nelson?

What would you as a councillor do to support the sector’s growth?

How do you think the sector could be strengthened over the next four years?

Arts, culture and heritage are a huge part of what makes Nelson – Nelson. It brings people together, creates a sense of belonging, supports our local economy and makes this a more interesting & vibrant place to live.

One of the biggest threats is simply losing the people who create that culture because they can’t afford to live or work here. When I ran in 2022, I wrote that without affordable housing and studio space, we would eventually lose artists and therefore art. That feels even more relevant now.

We also don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Nelson 2050 already commits to protecting cultural spaces, creating more affordable studio and cultural space, supporting public art and outdoor programming, and developing a Cultural Plan.

Over the next four years, I want to see the City actually follow through on those commitments, while making sure there’s room for emerging, independent and grassroots artists too.

9. Municipal Investment

Do you believe municipal investment in Nelson’s arts, culture, and heritage sector should be maintained or increased?

How would you balance investment in the sector with the other demands on the City’s budget?

I don’t think arts and culture should automatically be treated as optional when budgets get tight. They support local jobs and businesses, tourism, a vibrant downtown, community connection and quality of life. At the same time, Council has to balance that investment with essential services and infrastructure and be responsible with public money.

I’d approach it like any other budget decision: look at the evidence, listen to the people doing the work, pursue outside funding and partnerships where we can, and weigh it alongside other community needs.

10. Affordable & Accessible Cultural Space

The cost and availability of cultural spaces is an increasing challenge for artists, cultural workers and non-profit organizations. 

What role do you believe the City should play in protecting and supporting affordable spaces for arts, culture, and heritage services in Nelson?

What role do you believe the City should play in developing affordable cultural spaces?

Affordable cultural space and affordable housing go hand in hand. Artists can’t keep contributing to Nelson’s cultural life if they can’t afford to live here or find somewhere affordable to create.

I’d like to see us look creatively at underused spaces and how they could serve more than one community need. Housing, arts and cultural space, green space and other community amenities don’t always need to compete for separate pieces of land.

The City also doesn’t need to own or run every cultural space. It can help create the conditions for artists, nonprofits, businesses and other partners to make these spaces happen and keep them going.

11. Arts, Culture & Heritage in City Planning

How should arts, culture and heritage be considered within broader municipal decisions related to the following:

• Economic development and tourism? 

Arts, culture and heritage shouldn’t exist in a separate silo from everything else the City does. Arts and culture are already a big part of Nelson’s economy and why people want to visit. We should support cultural tourism without treating culture as something that exists mainly for tourists. The people who make Nelson interesting also need to be able to afford to live here.

• City and specifically downtown planning and the development of public space?

Public art, performance, and places for people to gather should be part of how we think about public space. I’d love to see more opportunities for art and culture to show up naturally throughout the city, not only inside designated cultural spaces. The Mural Festival is a great example of this.

• Affordable housing for cultural workers? 

Nelson needs housing that working people – including artists and musicians – can actually afford.

What role do arts, culture and heritage play in community wellbeing?

Arts and culture give us places to create, celebrate, grieve, question, learn and belong. A healthy community needs more than the infrastructure that keeps things running. People also need opportunities to connect with each other and meaningfully participate in the life of the place they call home.

12. Your Commitment

If elected, what is one concrete action you would like to see City Council and the City of Nelson take during the next Council term to strengthen arts, culture, and heritage in our community?

I’d like to see the City work with our arts and cultural community to move forward with the Cultural Plan already called for in Nelson 2050, with affordable and accessible cultural space as a big part of that work.

I’d want us to look at what spaces we already have, what we might be at risk of losing, and where the biggest gaps are. From there, we can look creatively at City land and buildings, partnerships and outside funding to help create more affordable places for artists and cultural organizations to create, rehearse, perform, exhibit and come together.